Reviews of books that have held my interest. And things that happen along the way.
I have made it simpler to leave a comment. Just hit the comment selection and choose anonymous at the bottom- Or at my yahoo;
robertrswwilliams@yahoo.com
And let's not forget my friends at the Public Libraries!Most of my selections come from the Libraries listed on my sidebar. They are a great resource and a wonderful use of our tax dollars.
Have you hugged a Librarian today?

Monday, September 29, 2014

"Chasing Shadows" by Ken Hughes (2014)

The cover of this book is intriguing at first glance. It
is a photo of President Lyndon Johnson in a White House elevator with
President-Elect Richard Nixon on November 11, 1968, just days after Nixon won
the Presidential election by the 2nd closest margin in the 20th
century; the first being John Kennedy’s victory over Nixon in the 1960
election. There is almost an irony to that alone.

The author mainly concerns himself with tying the
Watergate Affair to the 1968 Presidential election, when Nixon basically sabotaged
the Paris Peace Talks; talks which would have possibly cost him the election
against Vice President Humphrey. Through back channel maneuvers with Anna
Chennault; widow of the man who commanded the Flying Tigers during World War
Two; Nixon was able to accomplish just that, narrowly winning the election in
the bargain. That was in 1968; in 1972 he would win by a landslide.

The real surprise here is the role Lyndon Johnson played
in defeating his own Vice President, whose aims and goals regarding Vietnam did
not match the party position in reference to the bombing halt. Johnson wanted
it pegged to the restoration of the DMZ; with which the Republicans agreed;
while Humphrey and McCarthy wanted to stop the bombing without conditions in
order to show “good faith” to the North Vietnamese.

Relying on thousands of hours of tape recordings at the
Johnson Library and the Nixon Archives, the author paints an accurate picture
of the political ambitions which got us into the war in the first place, and
then kept us there far longer than was necessary. There were no “clean hands”
in the bunch. The Republicans and Democrats were both focused on politics
rather than what was right. These tapes prove the point.

While Johnson was advising Nixon; and Nixon was working
with Chennault to delay the Peace Talks; an atmosphere of secrecy and
subterfuge became the standard operating procedure in Washington. That attitude
led directly to Nixon forming the celebrated “Plumbers Unit” in the White
House; ostensibly to stop “leaks.” Left to their own devices they went on to
embroil Nixon in the Watergate scandal; something he knew nothing about until
after it happened. This was Nixon’s Bay of Pigs. He was blindsided by the same
group of people in the same way in which Kennedy’s administration was
blindsided by the last minute revelation of the full extent of the Bay of Pigs
Invasion.

This is a very important book in that it finally ties the
Watergate scandal to the things which preceded it. There are many who believe
that Nixon was set up by the CIA and Howard Hunt; who were working with some
Cuban exiles that were connected to the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The real question
is why?

Nixon was asking for the CIA files on the Bay of Pigs and
even stuff related to Dallas from the moment he took office. Why? He was
surrounded by people who all had ties to George Bush; either as an oil tycoon,
or later as a politician and head of the CIA. Why? This book doesn't answer
these questions, but they are inherently connected. The author has touched only
the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The name Bush doesn't even appear in the
index.

The author even blames the entire ineffectiveness of the B-52 bombing of the Ho Chi Minh trail on Pentagon and Cabinet leaks while completely ignoring the Walker Spy Ring, which cost the U.S. approximately 15-20,000 more battle deaths. It is impossible to discuss the B-52 bombing raids, and their having been compromised, without at least mentioning the Walkers. But that is exactly what the author does.

This book is a very detailed and helpful account of the
proposed policy to halt the bombing in Vietnam and how it was used as a
campaign issue by both sides in the 1968 election. It even shows how Nixon
forged a policy of secrecy and paranoia which would eventually culminate in the
Watergate burglary and his eventual departure from the White House.

But the book never really answers the crucial question of
how; or even why; Nixon would have allowed this to happen. For a wider scope on
the issues raised in this book; particularly the “why” behind the Watergate
break in; you can do no better than to read Russ Baker’s 2009 book “Family of
Secrets.”

In spite of any shortcomings, this book is still an important
one, if only because it goes beyond the basic assumptions of Watergate being
the product of an overzealous staff and a paranoid President. Nothing as
complicated as Watergate could possibly be that simple.